Nitrates, grain fillers, msg, and lots of add sugar, usually HFCS, found in most deli meats is what's bad about "processed" meats. Processing, as in making sausage, doesn't have to be bad, but just so often is if you find it in an ordinary market. Traditional processing is a way to preserve meat, and to make the bits and pieces/offal more palatable. There are lots of great types sausages/bratwurst/franks still made the old fashioned way, but you have to read the ingredients to be sure.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Any given day you are surrounded by 10,000 idiots. Lao Tsu, founder of Taoism

i'd go for the bacon with nitrates. but most supermarket bacon seems to have other ingredients in it too, besides the nitrates. is it possible to eat minimally processed meat? for example, you could buy whole turkey breasts, marinade, and then roast them. slice thinly and freeze in small portions until you're ready to use. would that work?

I think "really bad processing" is adding sugar or grain products (or MSG if you're sensitive to it).
"Probably bad processing" would be curing with nitrates/nitrites, since they turn into carcinogenic compounds when heated. It's debated HOW MUCH you'd have to eat for it to really be bad.

I've got no problem with grinding, salt-curing without nitrates, drying, adding spices and/or moderate amounts of salt, or stuffing it in casings. You could call any of those "processed" but it doesn't really affect how nutritious the meat is.

"mayness, you need to have a siggy line that says "Paleo Information Desk" or something!" -FMN <3

I was looking for a snack in the supermarket the other day, reading through ingredients lists on cooked meats. Can someone please tell me why there's a need to add sugar to roast chicken? What did the chicken ever do to them??